Most advice you’ll hear about how to get motivated and keep motivated when losing weight will teach you to rely on your will power for the support you need.

With that said, Willpower is tricky, and I highly believe that you should not put all your hopes upon it.

In Kelly McGonigal’s book ‘The Willpower Instinct’ she sums up this theory:

People who use their willpower seem to run out of it. Smokers who go without a cigarette for twenty-four hours are more likely to binge on ice cream. Drinkers who resist their favourite cocktail become physically weaker on a test of endurance. Perhaps most disturbingly, people who are on a diet are more likely to cheat on their spouse. It’s as if there’s only so much willpower to go around. Once exhausted, you are left defenceless against temptation – or at least disadvantaged.

You see – the problem with relying just on your will power to get you through the tough times is that your will power is finite.

Weight loss should be a necessity for you. As Historian Will Durant concluded that: History was not shaped by great men, but rather by demanding situations. Necessity, he found, is the single most important ingredient in the formula for greatness.

For example, if all the money you have in the bank would instantly vanish if you didn’t lose weight, I’m guessing you wouldn’t need any willpower…

Willpower is like a muscle

Research shows that it’s like a muscle. You over-use it and it fatigues. If you don’t let it rest sufficiently enough to recover, it won’t be much use to you for the rest of the day.
The added problem is that we don’t just use our will power to get us to stick to a weight loss or healthy living plan.

No – we use it all day long. 

No wonder that by the end of the day we collapse on the couch with zero energy. And the next obstacle we face will face zero resistance.

What’s the alternative to motivation?

You have to create conditions to make your weight loss success inevitable.

Richard Wiseman’s study on the psychology of motivation, all 5,000 participants had a goal but only 10% were successful in achieving it.

Upon analyzing the data, Wiseman discovered that how you set your goals makes all the difference:

Successful participants broke their overall goal into a series of sub-goals, and thereby created a step-by-step process that helped relieve the fear and hesitation often associated with trying to achieve a major life change. These plans were especially powerful when the sub-goals were concrete, measurable and time-based.

Just hoping to lose weight, or “It would be nice to lose a few pounds” is not enough. You will fail that way.

In order to succeed, you must break up the task into measurable sub-goals. You must say what your goal is and how you’re going to achieve it.

Your plan could be something like the following:

‘My goal is to create healthier habits. I will workout every Tuesday and Friday morning. I’m going to have 3 meals per day and include a salad for lunch every day. I will replace regular soda with a diet soda and make sure I get 7 hours of sleep per night. At last, I will adjust my caloric intake as needed until I see a constant weight loss of 1-2 lbs per week.”

Sounds better than “I would be happy to drop some pounds” doesn’t it?

To sum up,

Although some willpower is essential for any diet or fitness regime, it should not be the sole motivator. Follow a solid plan and do your best to make it a necessity